Tunus'ta en-Nahda Hareketi'nin mobilizasyonu (1981-2010)

The research question of this dissertation is how best to explain the nonviolent mobilization of the al-Nahda in Tunisia during a three-decade state repression between 1981 and 2010. This study examines why and how the al-Nahda emerged; founded a political party, created distinct goals different from contemporary Islamist movements in Tunisia, and showed remarkable moderation, pragmatism and flexibility in its preferences of alliance, strategies and policies, involving alliance with the secular groups facing regime repression. This dissertation analyzes the al-Nahda in accordance with the Social Movement Theory, and in this context, applies the Political Process Model (PPM) advanced mainly by Sidney George Tarrow, Doug McAdam and Charles Tilly. The answer to the research question hence lies in uncovering the changing and transforming factors, which are political opportunity structures, organizational dynamics and framing processes, at both international and national levels of the political domain as well as the movement. Process tracing method is also essential to underline these factors at different periods of the movement, which form the strategy of its political engagement. This dissertation contributes to literature by examining mobilization of an Islamist movement in a non-Western semi-authoritarian political setting by applying the PPM. Drawing on the al-Nahda case, this dissertation argues that an Islamist movement can survive and mobilize its base through moderation despite a heavy state repression. Keywords: al-Nahda Movement (Harakat al-Nahda), Tunisia, Social Movement Theory, Political Process Model, Islamist Movements, State Repression, Resilience of Movement